May 2009

We have some terrible news. Our dog has taken up smoking.

Just kidding. Don't worry PETA no animals have been hurt in the making of this photograph. Ethan just loves his rawhide so much he can't let it go even when his belly is getting rubbed.

This weekend we went down to Tokyo to hit up a Thai food festival. There were about 50 or so venders of Thai food that reperesented the various Thai restaurants in the greater Tokyo area. Quinn and I tried many dishes.

We also got a sneak peek of some of the cultural things we might see this summer on our trip. Here they are playing a hacky sak style game with a woven ball and the other picture is of women with some type of traditional head piece. Hopefully we will learn more about that on our trip. (For those of you we haven't told...we are going to Cambodia, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand this summer on our two week vacation and our AWESOME friends Sam and Dave are coming along!)

After we gorged ourselves on curry we went to Yoyogi Koen which is kind of like central park (I have talked about this in previous blogs) and observed the local tokyoites at play. This person was walking a bunny on a leash. Yes, it is wearing an outfit!

There are beautiful rose gardens in the area as well.

Here was a man making giant bubbles.

This was a wedding reception at the park and the groom had a heart shape shaved on his head!

These pictures are for Rossy. I know how he loves houses that don't look like houses. Well here is a mall that didn't look like a mall. It went from a wide section to a point and both sides had escalators going up or you could just go round and round to the top. It was really incredible!

After we wandered around Tokyo for a while we hit up the baseball game. There are 12 baseball teams in Japan. Two are in Tokyo and one is for the area near our house. We saw the Hanshin Tigers versus the Tokyo Swallows. The Tigers fans are known for being a rambunctious type. They separate the stadium into two sides depending on which team you are rooting for but the Tigers had more fans and were all throughout the stadium. You can bring your own alcohol and food into the stadium. The food at the concession stand was not your typical American baseball food. No peanuts and beer here. Sake and edamame were the snacks of choice!

Quinn had a great time chatting up the guy next to us. Of course, he spoke English as it seems all Japanese people do. And he wanted to chat with Quinn to make sure we were enjoying ourselves.

This is the most amazing part. Each player has their own theme song and the crowd sings this song every time they are up to bat. Fans also bring in trumpets so they can play the theme song along with the crowd's singing. Additionally, each players song has a dance that goes with it. This video is a little hard to see but all the way up at the top there is a crowd of people doing said dance. They danced the ENTIRE game with the same amount of zeal you see in the video. Take that Richard Simmons.

Also, each team has their own little gimmick when their team scores or during a certain part of the game. The Swallows hold up miniature umbrellas (parasols) when their team scores and all of the sudden we saw thousands of umbrellas in the air signifying to the other team that it was time to hit the showers. The tigers let off balloons with whistles after they sing a song at the top of the 7th.

It was a great time!

I would like to announce the official grand opening of www.globalnada.com. This is a website that my wonderful dad created to showcase my blog and other information about us. You can see the weather and time in Japan, read my blogs, read my tweets, and even Skype us. It is pretty neat. You will still be able to access the blog from www.trackers.travellerspoint.com if you want to. So check it out! Up at the top right hand corner there is a little umbrella that you can click on to leave me a message. I love messages.

I can't believe I let a month go by without writing. I am terrible. Part of the problem is that we have forgotten to take the camera for a couple of weekends and I feel like the blogs are rather lame without pictures. But you will have to excuse me for this one. It is a little light on the photography.

April 25 we discovered Tama Hills recreation area. This is a recreation area for those of us living on bases throughout Japan. They have camping, horseback riding, miniature golf, archery, and more for a very low cost. They have cabins there but they are always booked so we decided to camp. Here are some pictures of the campsite and our friends who just couldn't figure out how to get their tent up.

Nothing is better than mini chickens on a beer can!

We had so much fun that we decided to go again the next weekend. But alas, it rained and the fire pit became a pool for Ethan.

So the next day we went down to Yokohama and I thought there was a street performer festival going on. It turns out that the festival was the weekend before. Instead, there was a classic car show. I was devastated and Quinn was thrilled. Here are 1/100 th of the pictures that Quinn took.

You could just walk right up to the cars. It wasn't like in the US where they are all roped off. Quinn said some of them were worth 250,000 and up.

They were also having a gardening exhibition and they had different flower beds with various designs. I think it might have been a competition because there were about 30 flower beds with all different kinds of designs and patterns.

They also had an art exhibit with dried flower inside. It was "interesting."

This is where the pictures stop. The next weekend we went on a 42 mile bike ride to watch a mountain bike race. We got to see the top Olympic Japanese mountain biker. And then we met our friends for a picnic at Showa park. My butt hurt by the end of the day. But now I know I can ride 42 miles.

That brings us to last weekend. Our friends Kyle and Julie had a brunch and the "MEN" played croquette on the lawn and became quite competative. The girls sat and watched and drank Chu Hi. Chi Hi is a canned alcoholic beverage that is 6% alcohol and if you get Chu Hi strong it is 8% alcohol. It is sweet and delicious and dangerous because it is like drinking lemonade. On Sunday Quinn and I went for a hike and went to the Nipara Caves which have some stalagcites and stalagmites. I wish I had brought my camera to show you all, but I forgot it. We will do some more hiking out there so I will be sure to bring it along next time.

Well, that brings you all up to speed.

We are very excited for summer and I am doing a countdown for the number of days left in the school year. Today is 22. We have some visitors coming this summer and we can't wait. Mitzie (Quinn's mom) and Cullen (Quinn's brother), Jenny and Dave and Evan, and Andrea! YEAH! Looking forward to it.

Miss you all.